How the mighty have fallen...

...for Zooey Deschanel. I will likely lose all critical credibility with this next bit, surprising, and ever so pitiable, on the order of, say, a big tough guy having a soft spot for The Notebook. (Zing!) But I flipped to Failure to Launch on TBS tonight and couldn't flip away. Their "one movie, every night of the weekend" programming never made much sense to me until now. I'm a 21st century hobo, meaning I have no DVR (and ride the rails eating out of tin cans), I missed the first 20 minutes, and I just may tune in to the makeup session.

It's not a bad story idea. McNutty is the wounded but idealized supermanchild of the sort you find on every other page of Men's Health. (Extreme mountain biking! Rock climbing! Perfect abs! He's got it all, except for love.) And he can't let go of the security of living with the folks. SJP is a once-jilted hagshrew who needs to make the past right by controlling the present, and topping every scene partner. (I'm Carrie Bradshaw, dammit.)

Ol' Matthew gives a winning, easy performance, and for once you don't resent him coasting on his now-exhausted "awright-awright" charm. Are his teeth really that white? Kathy Bates and Terry Bradshaw are funny and touching as his parents. They clearly care for him; they just want some space. Bradshaw's "Naked Room" performance is worth the price of your time. And Bates, reliably, has one, sharp moment that cuts you.

And okay, SJP, who I cannot find the right words to express how much I dislike (witchface), manages to find one or two vulnerable moments (clown makeup), and here and there play someone more than a character from her new series, Sex in the Suburbs (glamour magazine conspiracy).

But the real payoff, is Zooey Deschanel's performance. You know her from Elf, maybe from All the Real Girls; her sister is Fox's Bones. She's gives the most tired dialogue a witty snap, has a fresh take on a been-there scene in a sporting goods store with Rob Corrdry's gun clerk, and flashes her big Suicide Girl eyes under her Vargas pinup haircut. SJP (beauty?mark) just can't hold the screen against her. You know, I think I take back everything I ever said about bangs. Pow!

P.S. Yes, there are inexplicable CGI animals with personalities. They eventually serve a, the?, story point. But there were other, better ways to get there. I guess the producers had money to burn, and decided to graft a kidflick to their adult comedy. I mean what does a kid care about the leaving Mom's cooking blues? I don't know, I guess I did say he was a manchild.